Ani-mazing Debate

The purple flowers rustle in the wind, and then Eren Jaeger wakes up from the terrible nightmare that titans were going to attack the town again. His friend, Mikasa Ackerman, stares at him, telling them that they should get back to their homes. They started to head back to their homes, thinking the titans wouldn’t attack again.

Across the world, there has been a spark of people starting to watch anime. Some people prefer the cute, sweet, and funny shows like Hetalia. But others prefer the violent yet calm shows like Attack on Titan, where it can go from flowers to death in five minutes. Most people, if you ask them, will just say that it’s Japanese cartoons, which is not actually true. It is actually Japanese animation. Hence the term anime.

There has been a debate about what the best anime really is. It differs depending on who you ask. Some people say funny shows like Hetalia while others say serious and sad shows like Attack on Titan.

Maddie Green, a freshman, who watches a good amount of anime, said, “Either Soul Eater or Hetalia, because Soul Eater… it’s pretty great, and Hetalia is really funny.” Green said this because the show “has her favorite character” and it’s really funny.

Felicity West, a freshman, also someone who has watched quite a bit of anime, said, “I would say Hetalia, because it’s funny and you actually learn stuff and it sticks in your head.” Her reasoning is that she likes how the countries are visualized as humans and how their voice actors portray them.

For how long these shows have been around; Hetalia was first aired in 2010, while Soul Eater had its first appearance on air in 2008.

Allie Keschinger, freshman, an avid anime watcher, said different than the other two, “Attack on Titan, because it’s the best and because it’s got the best storyline ever!”

Keschinger’s reason for this is that she likes the creativity.

“It’s different than anything I’ve ever seen before.” she said. This show is actually quite new, having come out in 2013.

We all have our favorites as well, like West for example, whose favorite episode is the classic first episode of Hetalia. The show is a short, quirky little mess of a story. It’s a brief five minute episode in which all the countries are meeting up to discuss world problems. The group of them are bickering about things completely unrelated to that topic though. After this meeting takes place, you hear Germany speaking of the Roman Empire, then after that, you hear about World War One, and you see Germany walking around with a stick. After a brief break, Germany walks up to a box… of tomatoes. It turns out that Italy is currently hiding in this box. Italy was actually going to surrender to Germany as you see him wave around a white flag.

West’s favorite part of this episode is when you see Germany opening the box containing Italy. She also likes how the graphics were done and how they followed together, gave specific times in history, and they just made everything really funny in general.

People tend to give suggestions or even take them. Green said that she doesn’t really give suggestions, but she does take them sometimes. While West said that she does take them, but doesn’t give them very often. She usually, if she has the time, watch the shows that are suggested to her. Keschinger also said that she takes suggestions and the ones she has given to her friends are usually listened to.

Polls online, such as some saying otherwise, say that Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is the best anime out there to watch. Some people say otherwise, but some also agree with this, Green said that she watched it and liked it, but doesn’t think it’s the best, noting that it’s in her top ten shows.

Keschinger said she hasn’t seen Brotherhood, but has seen the original, but still doesn’t think it’s the best.

West hasn’t watched it either but she said, “A lot of people have suggested that I watch it.” She says she may invest the time to watch this show eventually, but she doesn’t know.

Eren looks around, seeing the titans everywhere, and frowns, noticing that the house is on top of
his mother, and whimpers, hoping they can save her.